Movies, metaphysics and more

Everyone’s a programmer: The individualization of entertainment

I was out with a friend last week when I realized that I was missing the latest episode of “Bates Motel.”

“Oh well,” I shrugged. “I’ll just stream it later.” My friend considered this before noting that we are the last generation to have grown up with “real TV”–TV that you couldn’t pause, rewind or restart, free from the hands of individual control. Indeed, TV has come a long and winding way from its strange and jerky roots to the point where people have become their own programmers: choosing their own buffet of TV shows and movies from streaming services rather than allowing a traditional programmer to offer them a static lineup.

It’s a fascinating shift because it seems to be that, between personalized programming and content platforms, TV is moving from a family affair to an individual one. In the 1950s, the TV was replacing the fireplace as the family gathering site. Call me unimaginative, but I don’t see a crackling smartphone screen or the warm glow of an iPad replacing that. Not that those forms of content delivery are bad. Just that they don’t lend themselves to the average lifestyle of someone in the Western world–someone who prefers mobility from their technology, their information and themselves. The mentality of “I’ll watch what I want to watch went I want it” goes hand in hand with “I can carry the wealth of the world’s knowledge in my hip pocket, or at least a bunch of cat videos.” But pockets don’t lend themselves easily to sharing.

Although much of our language is about community and inclusivity, TV programming seems to be moving away from all that. When we talk about TV or culture at large, we’re part of a “dialogue” or a “conversation.” And more than that, when we plan a new creative project, we’ve moved beyond mere committees to crowdsourcing. But we’ll be damned if someone’s going to program our TV lineup for us. And have you tried cramming five people in front of a tablet? And two of them haven’t even binge watched their way to the latest episode? It’s enough to make you just stream the damn show by yourself tomorrow afternoon.

By the way, I did manage to watch “Bates Motel,” and I’m happy to say that Vera Farmiga’s Norma is just as crazy as ever. But don’t tell me how the latest episode went. I think I missed it.